Richard Willis of Grenada

Oil painting on canvas, Richard Willis (1724-1780), attributed to Robert Edge Pine (London 1730 – Philadelphia 1788), possibly Mason Chamberlin, the elder RA (London 1727 – Dorset 1787), circa 1760. A three-quarter-length portrait of a middle-aged man, turned to the right, gazing at spectator, his left hand on his hip, his arm leadning on a pedestal right and holding a paper with a red seal. He is wearing a powdered wig, tied at the back with a black ribbon and wears a blue velvet suit with blue buttons, blue waistcoat and blue breeches. He also has on a white shirt with simple stock, frilled front and frilled cuffs. Indistinct background but with a drape and long tassel seen on the right. Richard Willis was of Fern Hall, Essex. He married Bethia Legge (1734-1778); parents of James Legge Willis (1761-1817) and grandparents of Rhoda Susan Willis (1809-1873) the first wife of Sir Arthur Hallam Elton, 7th Bt, MP (1818-1883). A Turkey merchant of the Levant Co., he went bankrupt in 1778 owing to the French Wars and was, sent by his creditors to Grenada and died of wounds at the siege of Grenada 1780.

http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/624176